The rapid proliferation in the number and diversity of communication devices, mobile networks and other types of communication channels available to the public portends the emergence of new opportunities never before possible to enhance the quality, speed and efficiency of communication between clients and servers through a diverse group of communications channels and networks. However, not all the channels available have been utilized up to this point to better serve the ever increasing ubiquitous communications needs of the public. A communication system is desired that is equipped with the necessary distributed ad hoc networking intelligence that is required to assess and thus capitalize on the substantial communication opportunities wherever and whenever they present themselves. For example, when a computer user working on his desktop at home or office receives a packet of information while trying to download a file from the Internet, invariably the packet is received from the standard channels of communication, which may be a combination of phone lines, cable lines, and network lines. However, there are users, who may be holding wireless devices, who are not directly connected to the Internet via the above-mentioned normal channels of a terrestrial network. In those cases, the proximity of other wireless devices in the ‘vicinity’ of the user's device could lead to many more paths to choose from for an efficient communication. The ‘vicinity’ could be dependent upon many conditions such as the ability to use different transmission modalities that are, in turn, dependent on factors such as weather, other intervening visually obstructing objects, etc.
By utilizing potentially any dynamic ad hoc communications pathway in which at least one constituent node is mobile, a plethora of potential multi-nodal network configurations may become accessible, including variations of scenarios in which the information (source) server is mobile, the intervening router node(s) is/are mobile, the gateway server is mobile, and/or the client device is mobile. Ideally, all communications could be of any type, including point-to-point and multicast. Additionally, it is desired that the ad hoc communications pathway seamlessly and dynamically interface as well as integrate (i.e., “graft”) into a standard fixed node terrestrial network such as terrestrial networks, other wireless networks or any combination thereof. A market-based economic approach is also desired to assure that the allocation of available network resources needed to achieve the most efficient communications pathway for a given communications need are optimally selected so as to achieve optimal resource allocation and overall efficiency at a system-wide level.
Such a system has not heretofore been available in the art. The present invention is directed to an ad hoc system that addresses this need in the communications art.